Pakistan's top intelligence involved in planning the Mumbai terror

New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) India has proof that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's top intelligece agency, was involved in planning the Mumbai terror attacks and training the terrorists who killed 183 people during a 60-hour siege of the country's financial capital, sources said here Thursday.

The names of trainers and the places where meticulous
training took place are also known to the government, the
sources said.

The United States is believed to have even more
evidence some of which it has shared with India, they said.

Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike
Mullen, who was in Pakistan Wednesday, is believed to have
told his Pakistani interlocutors that Washington had enough
evidence to show a Pakistani hand in the attack, the sources
said.

Sources here also refuse to believe that the Pakistani
army did not not have knowledge of the Mumbai operation given
that ISI is controlled by it.

At the same time, sources do not not believe that the
civilian government in Pakistan is involved in the attack. In
fact, one view is that the civilian government itself may be a
target of the strike which may be used by the army to heighten
tensions with India to return to power.

Washington has asked Pakistan to crackdown on
Lashkar-e-Toiba, which now now goes under the name of
Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and to arrest its chief Hafeez Mohd Saeed
because it has evidence of their involvement in the attack,
the sources said.

The attack was planned, equipped and organised in
Pakistan where the terrorists were trained and provided
logistical support.

Contrary to the version that the terrorists used a
hijacked Indian fishing boat to reach Mumbai after sailing
from Karachi, the view here is that much more sophisticated
means were used.

The sources spoke of a clear disconnect between the
Pakistani civilian government and the all-powerful military
establishment, which is causing difficulties for India in
dealing with the situation.

Islamabad's about-turn on sending the Director General
of ISI to India is cited as an instance of this disconnect.

During a telephone conversation Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh after the Mumbai attack, President Asif Zardari had
referred to an earlier Pakistani proposal for a meeting
between the ISI chief and the head of India's external
intelligence agency, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing).

Singh told Zardari that this was acceptable to India,
after which Pakistan government had announced that the ISI
head would travel to India.

After a post-midnight call on Zardari by Army chief
Gen Ashfaque Kayani this decision was reversed with the
President taking cover under a "miscommunication" with the
Indian prime minister. Instead it was decided to depute a
Director-level officer to India.

When the terror attack took place Pakistan Foreign
Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was in India and had consciously
decided not not to cut short his visit. However, the Indian
government was told at 2.30 A M that a special aircraft was
being sent less than 4 hours later to take him back to
Pakistan.

In what observers see as a clear message to the
civilian government, the Pakistan army chief's plane was
sent to Delhi to pick up Qureshi, who boarded the flight
around 7 A M.

The view here is that the Pakistan army is using the
current developments as a way out of the difficult situation
it faces in the areas bordering Afghanistan where its writ
does not not run. Some 900 desertions are said to have taken
place from the army.

Creating tensions with India and diverting troops on
that pretext to the eastern borders appears to be the army
strategy but US is putting pressure on it not not to do so.
PTI MKR
DEP